‘Momentous milestone’ for QatarEnergy as contract for North Field expansion goes to McDermott

State-owned giant QatarEnergy has awarded a major engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) contract for the offshore scope of its North Field Expansion Project in Qatar to McDermott.

QatarEnegy, formerly known as Qatar Petroleum, said on Monday that the expansion project will increase Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) production capacity from 77 million tons per annum (MTPA) to 126 MTPA, through the North Field East (NFE) and North Field South (NFS) expansion projects, with the first LNG expected in 2025.

The North Field lies off the northeast shore of the Qatar peninsula and is one of the largest single non-associated natural gas fields in the world.

The final investment decision for developing the NFE project was made in February 2021.

According to QatarEnergy, the scope for the awarded contract includes 13 normally unmanned wellhead platforms topsides (eight for NFE and five for NFS), in addition to various connecting pipelines and the shore approaches for the NFE pipelines, beach valve stations, and buildings.

The jackets and the pipelines for the NFS Project will be subject to a separate tender, which is expected to be awarded in the first half of 2022.

Commenting on the occasion, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President & CEO of QatarEnergy said: “The award of this major EPCI contract is a momentous milestone that demonstrates QatarEnergy’s commitment to delivering our LNG expansion projects on time and to ensure the significant additional global LNG demand is catered for in a timely manner.”

He added: “This contract also reinforces our excellent relationship with McDermott. We are confident that the effective collaboration between QatarEnergy, Qatargas, and McDermott will result in the safe and successful delivery of the project according to plan.”

Qatargas has been entrusted with executing this mega-project on behalf of QatarEnergy.​

In late 2021, QatarEnergy also ordered six LNG carriers as part of its plans to meet the future LNG carrier requirements. The order included four vessels from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and two vessels from Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI).

Meanwhile, this is McDermott’s second major EPCI contract award in less than a month as the company in December 2021 secured new work from Saudi Aramco for projects in Saudi Arabia. In total, McDermott will provide EPCI of four drilling jackets and seven oil production deck modules (PDMs) in Saudi Arabia’s Zuluf, Ribyan, Abu Sa’fah, and Safaniyah fields located offshore in the Arabian Gulf.